... dividers to act as a D term in the PID sense, reducing overshoot and improving load regulation. The transfer capacitors in the middle of the Cuk structures are also now of smaller value, as is the main output capacitor; the latter should make it easier to fit into random niches in the casing.

... I'm redoing the PCB layout from scratch to make it a bit less chaotic. Turns out it really helps to start with the C-L-C-L/D-C chains of the Cuk converters, which are now in a pleasingly symmetrical line with nice short traces, both between themselves and to the controllers. This also gives ...

With Cuk converters, I would expect the load on the battery to reach maybe 600mA when programming. But that's not the point.

What I'm trying to do here is replace a 7-cell NiCad pack, which is expensive to replace like-for-like, and wears out quickly because the charger is as dumb as a box of rocks ...

One hefty redesign later, I now have a pair of Cuk converters based on the LT1372 (which has specific support for negative-voltage feedback) in place of the two boost and one buck converters based on the LT1110. This means that the board now technically provides a -9V supply instead of +9V, but this ...